Persons from Porlock,: And other plays for radio;

by Louis MacNeice

Louis MacNeice's radio plays are, apart from his verse, his major work. The freedoms of radio drama - to change scene at will, to move smoothly from soliloquy to dialogue, to use the unprojected voice - and its complete dependence on the spoken word offer unique opportunities to a poet. MacNeice took advantage of them and his plays are among the classics of the medium. In making this selection, W. H. Auden has chosen four plays well suited to radio. "Persons from Porlock" is a psychological drama which spans twenty years in the life of a painter. In "Enter Caesar", Caesar's rise to power is seen through the eyes of others. "East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a fairy tale, and "They Met on Good Friday" concerns the complicated and ambiguous relations between the vikings and the native inhabitants of Ireland during the tenth and eleventh centuries. They prove the strength and flexibility of the medium and show a master of language working in an area which suits him supremely well. (Inside cover). Enter Caesar. East of the sun and west of the moon. They met on Good Friday. Persons from Porlock.

144 pages, Hardcover

Published January 1, 1969

About the author

Born to Irish parents in Belfast, MacNeice was largely educated in English prep schools. He attended Oxford University, there befriending W.H. Auden.

He was part of the generation of "thirties poets" which included W. H. Auden, Stephen Spender and Cecil Day-Lewis; nicknamed "MacSpaunday" as a group — a name invented by Roy Campbell, in his Talking Bronco (1946). His body of work was widely appreciated by the public during his lifetime, due in part to his relaxed, but socially and emotionally aware style. Never as overtly (or simplistically) political as some of his contemporaries, his work shows a humane opposition to totalitarianism as well as an acute awareness of his Irish roots.